Nory, an operating system for hospitality businesses, has secured £12.5 million in Series A funding round led by Accel.
Existing investors Cavalry, Playfair, Samaipata and Triplepoint also participated in the round for Nory, which saw 400% revenue growth in 2023.
Nory, which has bases in Dublin and London, has created an AI-powered platform for hospitality businesses to manage and scale operations, and vitally increase profitability through centralising all of the key operational data into a unique single source of truth.
The challenges of the sector have been well documented, with significant closures and average EBITDA margins of just 3% last year according to UHY, following the rise in labour, food and energy costs.
This, coupled with a significant staff drain from the industry with senior talent migrating to other sectors post pandemic, has made finding seasoned and professional management almost impossible.
Working with the likes of Buns from Home, Jamie Oliver Group and Roasting Plant Coffee across the UK, Europe and the US, Nory says it has been proven to reduce costs by almost 20% and increase EBITDA by over 50%.
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Nory’s AI analyses data in real-time and acts as an AI-venue manager to coach front line workers on how to run their venues efficiently and profitability. It uniquely centralises key operational data into a unique single source of truth.
Its technology predicts hourly venue demand for each day with 95% accuracy based on historical data matched with AI algorithms. These algorithms take into account seasonal trends and hyper local live data on weather and events to help restaurants and cafes manage staffing. Going further, it then matches these predictions to other core workflows like stock management to reduce costs and waste.
Having previously founded and scaled Mad Egg, Ireland’s fastest growing independent restaurant group, Nory CEO Conor Sheridan was disillusioned with the quality of software available and developed Nory to address these pain points within the hospitality industry.
This investment will be used to accelerate product development and international expansion.
“The industry is facing challenges and complexities like never before. Operators don’t want more tools and apps that digitise every micro-workflow. They need technology that can give them real control over their business, their profitability and their destiny,” said Sheridan.
“Nory is on a mission to help systemise success for the restaurant industry and to stack the odds in their favour. Our Series A funding will help us on our path to building the world’s largest restaurant technology company.”
Luca Bocchio, partner at Accel, added: “We’ve been impressed by the early traction and strong customer engagements the Nory team has already achieved and Conor’s deep industry knowledge.”